


Hunted or Be Hunted

by Adrestia_Hektorsdottir



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29808924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adrestia_Hektorsdottir/pseuds/Adrestia_Hektorsdottir
Summary: September 4th, 2551. Two SPARTAN-III Headhunters deploy to the world of New Lund, to counter a Covenant invasion. What they find however, is that they may have bitten off more than they can chew. Hunted by a zealous Stealth Sangheili, they must work together to survive.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Deedah’Vadamai strode confidently through the halls of the ORS-class heavy cruiser Flame of Faith, towards the bridge. As he made his way towards the heart of Flame of Faith, he did his routine check of his infiltration harness and weapons. The first system to be checked was the personal shields, which the Sangheili cycled easily enough. Zero-point-zero-seventeen units of time off, Deedah noted to himself. Unacceptable in a combat situation. He would check with the technicians soon enough. 

Next up was the active camouflage system within his harness. It took time for him to be fully shrouded, but this system did its work well enough. As part of Fleet Security, he took solace in his practice of stealth and silence. He would reflect upon his Great Journey while cloaked, as a means of meditation. So many steps, uncountable in their number, had been taken up to this point. It was worth reflecting on them. A quick check of everything else revealed green conditions. Satisfied, he uncloaked. 

He pushed his way past an Unggoy Major and his squad, earning a few piercing glares for his troubles. Deedah paid them no heed. The door to the bridge was ahead. Stepping through the portal, Deedah walked over to his place behind a Ranger. “Glory and honor guide our ascension, brother.” He greeted his charge with the Ranger’s Mantra. The Ranger nodded his acknowledgement, and returned to his work at a nearby console. Looking through the view-pane of the bridge, he saw a white and grey orb before them. How peaceful it looked, floating there in the void. Yet it was a hive of inequity, he knew that. 

“This is the world, I take it?” He said to himself. His stealth harness’s systems listed the human name for the world as New Lund. Deedah grinned and spoke quietly. “We will soon visit our fire upon it. Yea verily, we shall put them to the torch.” 

“Indeed, brother.” The booming voice of Rhel’Radam, Shipmaster of Flame of Faith, filled the bridge. He had fine ears. Deedah winced at being heard. “Your zeal is a welcome gift to our Covenant. Let it be tempered by the will of our Prophets.” 

“Shipmaster.” Deedah was silent for a micro-unit of time. Did he have orders for Deedah? 

“I have a need for your skillset, brother. You will be going shoreside this cycle.” The command chair wheeled about to face Deedah. The imposing form of the Shipmaster looked down upon him. “They send demons to fight us.” He spat the words out, contemptuous of the humans and their demons. “Their vermin will not save them from their destined end. You will hunt them, and you will kill them.” 

Deedah’Vadami smacked his clenched, armored fist against his chestplate. The sound of metal on metal resounded through the bridge, and a few looked up from their duties. “I will do this, Shipmaster.” He told his superior. “May I find favor in the eyes of the gods.”

“Excellent. As it is written, so shall it be done!” 

* * *

The whirring whine of the Falcon transport’s engines overpowered all other noises as they sped over the skyline of Tarto City. Addy-G027 and Esau-G996 watched stoically from the passenger compartment as the city vanished from sight, the Falcon speeding them into the wilds. They were both clad in heavily modified SPI Mark II. “We have reports of a Covenant presence building something in the wilds of the northern continent.” Micah’s voice buzzed in their ears. He sounded urgent, like something had him concerned about this mission. “Judging from what we’ve seen on other planets, we believe this to be a priority one target.”

“What resistance can we expect, Lieutenant?” Esau was quick to ask the important questions of Micah. He gripped his battle rifle tightly. Addy looked on, silent for the time being. Her M90 shotgun laid still, one hand pressing it against her lap. 

“We have reason to believe a heavy cruiser is leading a Covenant task force in the system. Our satellites showed a substantial enemy presence on the ground before the electromagnetic cloaking went up. After that, zilch.” 

“So it’s going to be a hard op, then.” The Spartan-III made a noise of discontent. He hated missions like this. “What support can we expect, sir?” 

“We’re the first UNSC support to answer the call to help, Spartans. Right now, all we have are the Colonial Guard. They’re well-equipped, but green. You’ll have to RV with scouts in the area to get a better picture of the situation on the ground.” 

“Hear that, Addison?” Esau said. “Teamwork.” She grunted in response, dismissive of the whole situation. 

“Great. Leading untested men to battle against the most ruthless enemy mankind has ever fought. We’ll do it, Micah. But we won’t like it. Pilot! How far out is the LZ?” 

“Ten klicks, Spartan. Hold your horses.” 


	2. Chapter 2

Stepping off of the Falcon transport, Addy and Esau were confronted with a grim scene. The colonial scouts lay dead in the snow around them, ruddy stains about them. Their armor was melted, warped by the heat of plasma fire. “Just what we needed. Shit!” Esau swore sharply and loudly at this. He knelt down to the ground, and began to rifle his way through the dead’s possessions. “See if you can find a TACPAD.” He ordered Addy as he searched the bodies, who did likewise. “We’ll be able to download their SQUADCOM data if we do.”

“What do you reckon killed them?” Addy asked her partner. He kept searching through the bodies, but raised his head to listen. “Obviously, it was Covvies, of course. But, Elites? Grunts?” 

“It looks like an ambush to me, Addy. Some of their limbs are cut clean off.” The Spartan-III answered his squadmate, somewhat tersely. He was clad in modified, salmon-red SPI Mark II armor, with a helmet based on the Mark V MJOLNIR. Their suits had each been refitted with enhanced active camo, derived from captured Covenant modules. “Type-1s, I reckon. Energy Swords.” 

“Elites, then. Found one!” Her gauntleted fingers pried a TACPAD off an NCO’s wrist. Linking it to her data socket, Addy downloaded the data from the SQUADCOM. Almost immediately, a TACMAP began to form in her HUD. Several large NAV points, marked in red, appeared. “That’s not good. You see this, Esau?”

“Yeah.” Esau rose to his feet, looking to the forest in front of them. There was a darkness between those trees, thick and black. “There’s a large clearing marked two klicks out, through the forest, close to those NAV points. Let’s get moving.”   
  
“Alright.” Addy double-timed it towards the trees, her head lowered as she did so. Esau followed close behind his teammate. They both activated their suits’ active camo, blending in with their environment and vanishing.   


* * *

Deedah stayed his feet briefly as the demons made their way towards the Spires, then vanished. He had easily run down and dispatched the human interlopers sent to spy on their construction, but this was another matter entirely. Creeping along the treeline of the forest, he kept a careful eye on his harness’s motion tracker. They would reappear at some point, he knew it. And then, he would strike. He had two weapons on him at present: a Bloodblade, an honored relic of his house, and a simpler Plasma Rifle. These would serve him well, he had no doubt. If he could get the drop on the demons, he would easily dispatch them. 

The problem, however, was finding them. They had vanished into the forest, some sort of active camouflage shielding them from his wary eyes. However, they still left both sign and spoor of their presence. Footprints in the snow, footprints which he could follow. And so Deedah followed them, his mind taking him elsewhere, into the foggy mists of the past.

His mother had been a strict matron, who had high expectations of her son. With his uncle by their side, she would often take her youngling to the saga wall of their keep. “Look here,” She would say to him, her firm grip on his shoulder, as they gazed upon it. The tightness of the grip never bothered young Deedah. It was instead comforting, a reminder that someone somewhere was looking out for him. “Remember these words of heroism, youngling.” 

Those childhood days were good. Their long summers were long past, but they held a special place in his mind. He doubted any of these demons could say the same. They were creatures that, to his perception, existed only to fight. Humanity at large had a life outside of fighting, heretical as their existence was. These... _creatures_...did not. Maybe, they had inner lives of their own. Maybe, perhaps. Deedah doubted it, strongly.

His thoughts returned to the world before him. Deedah was coming out of the forest now, into the clearing where the invasion’s staging ground had been set. The demons’ tracks continued on for quite a distance. He would keep following them, a lone hunter. Like a mighty ‘sKelln swooping down to take prey, he would ambush them, and defeat them. 

He swore this. On the blood of his fathers. On the blood of his sons. 

* * *

“Structures.” Esau noted, viewing the Covenant construction through his HUD’s magnification system. He laid flat against the ground. They were huge, tall towers, great purple scars in the skyline. A great energy dome was projected around them, masking any Covenant presence from his view. “Big ones.” He rolled over to face Addy, who lay beside him. “What are we doing? I can’t see inside, so we need to get eyes inside.”

“Agreed.” Addy rose to her feet, pumping her shotgun with her right hand. Whipping her head to her left, she made a noise of confusion. “Odd. Could’ve sworn I heard something.” Stepping towards the forest, she did a quick visual sweep. “Must’ve been an animal. I hope so, anyhow.” 

“You better hope so,” Esau sardonically said. “This mission is complicated enough as it is.”


End file.
